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| Eric will not return to Congress for an eighth term. |
I remember the Summer of 2008 as if it were a month or two ago. I attended a Republican fundraiser at a large farm in which a number of political dignitaries were in attendance. As a homeschooling family, I used to bring our children to events such as these, in part because it teaches them things about politics, politeness, and social skills. Too often children see themselves as inhabitants of a parallel universe distinct and separate from political people, when it point of fact they are not. Since the other kids were in college, Daniel attending this particular event with me.
Daniel, who was twelve, was his usual articulate self, and when he met Eric Cantor, he explained how the bank bailouts as planned, were counter to the way capitalism works. Eric Cantor was gracious to Daniel and explained that the bank bailouts would have to occur because the damage to the economy could be catastrophic if they did not. Daniel told him that a bank that made bad business decisions should fail, and then the people employed by those banks would start new smaller banks which took fewer risks, and that capitalism is in fact, self cleaning, but Congressman Cantor wasn't buying.
Only a few months later, when Daniel died, so unexpectedly, I did notify Eric Cantor that the child who at 12 1/2 had so articulately spoken politics with him, was gone. I hoped he would remember him, and perhaps even shed some light on why our local government had refused to pay for an autopsy on a completely unexpected death. Our family was left procuring one ourselves and agreeing to pay for it. Eric Cantor's office never responded despite the fact that our family had met him many times and that we had worked to help him be elected in 2000.
When Daniel died, so much of the world seemed to go sideways. An unqualified man was elected to the presidency. Our new president spent money like water. He ate lobster in Wyoming and beef in Maine. One problem after another ensued including a continuing deteriorating economy. Anyone who questioned the actions of the regime was accused of racism when we were criticizing actions not ethnicity. "Cash for Clunkers" came and went. "Shovel Ready Jobs" were coming and never did. More and more of our friends lost their jobs, and often their homes just after. Our friends who kept their homes found them worth only about half of their initial expenditure. Selling a home in order to take another job in another part of the country sometimes meant walking away and trashing their credit entirely. Our children graduated from universities with debt from college, and did not find jobs. A half baked expensive health program fashioned as a precursor to National Health came in. The "Affordable Care Act" wasn't affordable at all. Some of the people we knew lost their health insurance entirely. Business after business closed. The government began buying millions of dollars worth of ammunition for all of its federal agencies, and it became difficult to buy many types if you were the general public. More and more late night, holiday and weekend actions by the executive branch continued to erode the US Constitution. There is talk of granting amnesty to illegal aliens when many Americans born here who would take ANY job, still can't find one. Some of our own people have been looking for work for years.
More food banks appeared and most are regularly empty. More and more middle class families have been depending upon them. Businesses close, and more Goodwill stores have opened. Through all this time, we continued to do what we believe genuine patriots do. We did not demonstrate anywhere, however we wrote constant letters to our Congressman Cantor and to our Senators. We explained why we were concerned about the debt load of the United States. We asked that Obamacare not be funded. We don't want our state's Medicaid expanded. From Senator Mark Warner we received letters back saying that he would do his best to clamp down on guns when our letter had been concerned with our retaining our gun rights, particularly in a rural area. He and his staff didn't even really read our letter. Our letters back from Senator Tim Kaine sounded as if they had come from a socialist. We had hoped Eric Cantor, our Congressman, would work to lead the charge to rescind Obamacare. We hoped that he would be a part of the group who tried to curtail runaway governmental spending. This never happened. As nice a man as Eric Cantor is, he seemed completely out of touch with the wishes of his constituency.
Today when the Republican Primary took place our family went down to the polling station and we voted for the professor of economics who is opposing Eric Cantor. It broke our hearts to vote against the person we had worked for all those years ago. However, things in the US are going so badly that we need people strong enough to oppose the present regime, not appease it. This week the present regime paid money and traded five Taliban members in exchange for a man who deserted our troops. This was unwise, but it was also illegal because proper notifications were not given to Congress. We have long since moved squarely into impeachment territory, yet we don't have men courageous enough to tackle these problems in our Congress.
I know that Eric Cantor may well have been the next Speaker of the House. I know that the votes of my family do make a difference. I just heard that Eric Cantor lost his eighth bid to be returned to Congress. I grieve for him and his family. I also grieve for mine. I pray that whomever does return to Congress on our behalf has the starch to speak honestly and with fiscal responsibility. Daniel, I did my best.
